Sick Kittens?

I'm trying to decide between two breeders right now for a Maine Coon kitten. And I have some small concerns for both, so I wanted a second opinion from people who were more cat savy than myself.

Breeder 1:
Breeder 1 is very nice and warm, she let us come visit her house and her cats. She seemed very passionate about breeding and her house was tidy. In the time I've been following her/on her waiting list she's had three litters, the third my possible kitten is among. Her other litters were fine and healthy. On the third litter one kitten was suffocated by the mother, and another kitten was not gaining weight/not latching on. Is it common for either of these to happen? Does it discredit her as a breeder? The kitten that wasn't latching on seems to be doing fine now.

Breeder 2:
Breeder 2 is a little more "business-like" and less warm I'd say. She still wanted us to come to her house and visit so she colle meet us. Which I liked as well. Her house was a little messy though, in her defence she was prepairing for a cat show, and was adding on a porch to the house for her cats so it was half in construction. The cats seemed VERY affectionate and asside from a bit messy there seemed to be okay living conditions. The kitten that we were supposed to pick up was beautiful. But at first it was wary of us and would shrink away from us, she said it was because of all the chaos in the house and that it had gotten shots so it was like 'are you going to give me a shot?" The kitten did warm up though and was very lovey. There were also little bumps on its neck, she said it was from other kittens claws from when they were playing. The bumps were very tiny but there were a few of them around the neck and shoulders of the cat. What could these bumps be? And is what she said viable?

Thanks for anyone who's knowledgable. Kittens are expensive, so we want to make sure we're getting a healthy cat. Both breeders have health gaurentees, so either way we're going to take it to the vet and get it checked out. But I need to decide between the two breeders, and that's what I'm debating about.

I am glad you got to visit the kittens.
I am getting my sphynx sometime next week and could not see the kittens because the breeder is in North Carolina.
Kai Bengals got me the breeder I am using and he knows him.
Kittens die sometimes. My Sahsa came from a litter where they all died except her and her brother and she is fine.
Can you research the breeders online or see if anyone in this group knows anything the ones you might use.
I had a breeder I met at a cat show and everything was going fine until after they were born.
She said I would get one for sure and they kept making excuses why she didnt answer her email.
Saying she was busy.
I the breeders here if they can fine me another breeder and Kai got me Ed and he answers emails very fast.

What about the bumps on the one cat? That's something we are concerned about.

I do find that strange that the kitten has bumps.
I have seen alot of kittens and have never seen that on any.
My Oreo Cookie I knew had problems when I got her.
She has fcks.

The only thing I can offer about the bumps is kinda the same as what the breeder had said about kittens scratching each other. My litter of 8 kittens had this when they were about 2-3 weeks old, mostly on the tops of their heads. I watched them ALOT and it was mainly caused by them fighting over nipples and getting scratched.

The first breeder you listed sounds ok to me. Kittens do die, and the mothers are doing what comes naturally...if they know a kitten is sick, it will smother it. I used to see this as a kid when our siamese had babies...of course, not every litter. If the other kitten is now latching on, the problem is pretty much solved and the breeder knows if something isn't going right.

If it were me, I'd go with breeder #1.

Out of the 2 choices, I'd go with Breeder #1. But IMO you may want to look for a third breeder.

Before I even picked out the breeders for my Oci's I did a ton of research on the available breeders. While I did want a show cat (and am therefore a little more picky in things), I still was impressed with their cats in general, talking to them on the phone and meeting them.

Guess I've been pretty lucky as most of my breeders I've gotten cats from - I never got to visit them in person till after I got the cats! And word of mouth from other breeders can be a good/bad thing.

With Charlie we got to meet the breeder in person at a show and briefly talked about a kitten. We went to pick up Charlie at the breeder's house. He was not afraid of us at all. We would have loved to seen the cattery at the time, but she just had a litter of newborns and didn't want us to go inside the cattery. But its a wonderful set up - we saw pics later (and she's one of the top Oci breeders in the US as we found out later.

With Jack, again, I did a lot of research and was impressed with her cats and her guarentees. We've talked on the phone a LOT and she's a wonderful caring breeder. She knows I want show quality and is thrilled I want to show one of her cats. Also have talked to and met 2 other Oci breeders that have good things to say about Jack's breeder.

One of these days we will try to go to a show close to Jack's breeder so she can see how he's done all grown up. Our Cornish Rex breeder (got 2 kittens from her - one alter, one breeding) - we never got to meet them in person and see their cattery till 7 yrs after I got the kittens from her.

Is the kitten shrinking away from us at first normal? Or can that be a sign of bad socilization?

I guess that depends on the circumstances. I have been around kittens that yes, do that. After only a few minutes of gentle coaxing, do relax. I mean, if the kitten hasn't been around alot of visitors, it could do that. If this was their first venture out of their kitty room they are kept in, they will be a bit nervous. I kept my kittens away from my other cats until I could no longer hold them back. Even when a couple of them went to their new homes, they didn't know how to navigate stairs. Mine are hardwood, so they weren't used to that surface and just stayed on my top floor...which was ok because keeping track of 8 kittens and making sure they're safe is tough to do sometimes on a floor level not baby proofed.

The kitten you saw may just be shy naturally, and that's not something a person can call unsocial. I don't know how old the kittens you looked at are, but if they are close to 12 weeks of age, they should be easily handled once they are calm.

Skewch - The kitten was 9 weeks old, about. And at first it didn't run away, just kind of pull away and look at our hands like "what is this? Who are you?"

But after slowly petting him he was perfecly calm, but not very affectionate.

Did you see all of the kittens or just one? Do you get a choice of which one you'd like? If so, you can go back and watch the others and see who picks YOU. My devons are both very different. One I got at 8 weeks, one at 12..the one at 12 does not like to be held but we can hold her. She doesn't like it though, but we've been trying for a year to get her more used to it. My boy who we got at 8 weeks we can hold him like a baby and walk around with him all day if we wanted to. Both cats are very affectionate, loving animals.

I would either try going back for a "second look" or start seeking out another breeder in the meantime before the kitten is adoptable. If you didn't fall absolutely in love with the kitten at first site, I'd keep looking. Now having said that, the kitten doesn't sound like it hasn't been socialized enough. Having just had shots too can make kittens a little "off".

I too have seen kittens with these little bumps on the neck. Have you seen kittens play with each other. They are rough. I would only worry if they started to get bigger or smelly

Originally Posted by kunskitten

Is the kitten shrinking away from us at first normal? Or can that be a sign of bad socilization?

Click to expand...

A breeder I'm friends with says all her litters go through a "I'm not sure if I like people" phase, where it takes them a little longer to come up to strangers.

By the time they go home they're back to their normal confident selfs.